


jam #07: Graduation Challenge

by PokeNirvash



Series: Kinky Kunoichi [7]
Category: Jam-Orbital, Original Work
Genre: Bondage, Detective Work, Gen, Group Bondage, Jam-Gagging, Kidnapping, Lawlharem, Over-the-Nose (OTN) Masks, Police, Smoking, Yoyogi, emotional breakdown, kunoichi - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-27
Updated: 2019-07-27
Packaged: 2020-07-22 23:10:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 17,832
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20000017
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PokeNirvash/pseuds/PokeNirvash
Summary: Naokuu's run-in with one of the Kinky Kunoichi opens up a new avenue of investigation regarding Muchise's whereabouts, but the fruit of his efforts are put in jeopardy by a surprise meeting with his superior officer. Meanwhile, in response to said run-in, the Kunoichi decide to punish Shin for disobeying their orders, by way of targeting some of his other peers.





	1. Prologue

“That’s absurd!” Hosuga exclaimed, too matter-of-fact with his statement to be shocked. “You know I can’t just tell you who came into the archives yesterday. It’s a matter of privacy, you see.”

“Privacy, my ass,” Azaguro retorted. “That excuse only works for Level 2 and above, and you know it.”

“Not to mention your refusal to answer only substantiates our theory,” said Natsutaka.

Despite the lack of windows in the hall outside the doors into the Level 1 Archives, the majority of off-lights running along the plasterboard ceiling demonstrated full well that the day was in its evening hours. Early or late, it didn’t matter. The near-darkness of the hallway was enough to justify that it was night out there, beyond the walls of the Shibuya Police Building. The only light left on in the hallway was the one above the archives entrance. A thin fluorescent strip light whose length ran from one side of the hall to the other, it possessed a dim shine and a noticeable flicker, bathing its part of the hall in a blue-green glow.

Standing under the light, in front of the double doors, was Hosuga, the archives’ manager, dressed in his white shirt, sleeves rolled up to the elbow, and tie, just as he was the previous day. His grin was missing for the moment, replaced with a frown further emphasized by the under-the-breath grumble he gave in response to the two facing him at the edge of the lamplight: Azaguro and Natsutaka. The two detectives were dressed in their usual garb, though Azaguro wore a solid-colored tie as opposed to a striped-pattern. Azaguro stood in front, his left hand in his jacket pocket and the right held out, palm facing upward, while Natsutaka kept back a footstep’s length to his companion’s right, arms naturally hanging straight by his sides.

“Look, we _know_ Tanoshiba came down here to the second floor yesterday,” Azaguro continued. “All that we’re asking is, _did_ he stop by the Level 1 Archives, or _didn’t_ he?”

Hosuga was silent for a moment, keeping the frown he held from the moment he made his exclamation. It didn’t take long, however, for that frown to fade. His smirk returned, his mouth opening slightly as a soft grunt escaped his lips.

“Guess there’s no point hiding it from you fellas. Yes, Naokuu Tanoshiba did indeed stop here at the Archives yesterday. Said he was looking for information on last week’s battle between the Shimizu and Fuyuzora clans.”

Azaguro and Natsutaka listened to the manager’s explanation, the former nodding along, two nods for each sentence, and the latter writing down notes in a black leather-bound notepad.

“I’m afraid that’s all I can tell you under these sudden circumstances.”

“Very well,” Azaguro said, nodding one last time. “Lucky for you, that’s all we needed to know.” He brought his hands in front of him and closed his eyes, leaning forward in a bow. “Thank you for your cooperation, Mr. Hosuga.”

Natsutaka put his notepad away and did the same as Azaguro.

“Anytime, gentlemen.” Hosuga brought his hands in front too but simply nodded in response.

With the exchange of gratitude complete, Azaguro and Natsutaka took off down the hallway, moving past Hosuga to his left.

“The Shimizu and Fuyuzora… Wasn’t their fight on the night that Yokoshima’s daughter disappeared?”

“That’s right,” Azaguro remarked with a grin. “Which means _we’re_ right too.”

As the two detectives moved farther away, Hosuga remained under the flickering light, his smirk wider than before. After another lull, he opened his mouth again and let out a quiet snicker.

“Oh, Naokuu… You poor fool.” He lowered his head, the light glossing over his spectacles. “You didn’t visit the archives yesterday out of mere curiosity, now _did_ you?” He brought his hand up to the bridge of his glasses, pushing them up with his middle digit. “If those two are right, that they came here on _Gojiki’s_ orders…” He raised his head up again, eyes wide in amusement. “…then it appears you’re in for a world of trouble, my friend.”


	2. Act 1

“Don’t move! This is the police! Let go of the girl and put your hands behind your head, or I _will_ be forced to shoot!”

Naokuu’s words resonated throughout the narrow alley, sandwiched between a multi-story apartment complex and a set of run-of-the-mill residences. The former of the two buildings had several balconies from the third to fifth stories looming over part of the alley, the bottom of the lowest balcony fitted with fluorescent bulbs under opaque circular covers, two in all. The lights, while dim, lit up the entire alley in a glow that gave everything a desaturated pink shade, a start contrast to the cobalt blue late evening sky.

Standing in the middle of the alley, a few steps beyond the balcony cover, were the two other people there: Fuji and her victim of choice for tonight’s kidnapping. The kunoichi was clad in her usual getup: a tankini top and thong, OTN mask and eyeshadow, all with a pastel purple motif, and a pair of black spandex opera gloves and stockings. Her victim, meanwhile, was in a blouse-dress and stockings that were mostly covered by the rope harness around her torso, the extra lengths binding her limbs, and the microfoam tape providing extra restriction, as well as a hot pink over-the-nose bandana covering up the bulging cloth gag jammed into her mouth. The two of them looked in the direction of the alley’s end, where Naokuu stood facing them with his pistol pointing forward; the victim as a fearful glance, her head turning to the left, and Fuji in indifference, tinged with amused annoyance.

“I repeat: let go of the girl and put your hands behind your head, or I’ll be forced to shoot!” He stared the kunoichi down with a determined glare, his hands holding a steady grip on the pistol as his right index finger brushed the trigger. Ready to shoot, no questions asked.

“Seriously?” Fuji closed her eyes and tilted her head down, her right hand against her hip as it held onto the leash attached to the collar around her victim’s neck. “It hasn’t even _been_ that long, and here I have _another_ witness to contend with.” She scoffed as she raised her hand and gripped the leash. “I _swear_ , they _won’t_ be happy at all with me bringing in another guy, especially if he’s a _cop_.”

At the final emphasis, Fuji tugged the leash hard, forcing the bound girl forward. She took two steps and let out a pained groan behind her gag. “Mnnnph!”

Naokuu grunted in anger and disgust, his eyebrows furrowing and his eyes starting to glow a slightly brighter red in the far edge of the alleylight. In response, he pushed his index against the trigger without actually pulling it, his pose holding steadier than before.

“I’m not playing games here, lady!” he announced. “Drop the girl, get down on the ground, and give yourself up! Do anything else and I _will_ shoot you! I’m not negotiating here, one wrong move and you’re _finished_!”

“Ohh, how _scary_.” Fuji tilted her head upwards, cockily grinning under her mask as the victim crouched in appropriate fear at the detective’s warning. “Like some silly ultimatum will keep me from giving this cutie what she _deserves_ ~.” She tugged her leash again, eliciting a fearful whimper.

“I’m not gonna ask you again! Are you gonna _listen_ to me, or are you gonna _die_!?” Though keeping steady, Naokuu’s shout was much more passionate than before, his head moving and a brief spray of saliva escaping his mouth.

Fuji, meanwhile, closed her eyes again. She said nothing, and kept up her quiescence for another several seconds. Once it ran its course for her, she opened her eyes, the bright red orbs gleaming, and gave her answer.

“Neither.”

Suddenly, she pressed the side of her hand against her victim’s collar, letting go of her leash as she pushed her against the wall, the girl whimpering again as her side made contact with the brick surface. Fuji’s hand then reached behind her back, from which she procured a cylindrical roll of white microfoam tape.

“What I’m gonna _do_ is put you in your _place_ , Mister Policeman!”

Flipping the roll around in her hand so her fingers weren’t touching the exposed end, Fuji threw her arm back, gripped the roll tight, and brought it forward with just as much force. Her index finger pressed against the top of the roll’s center, and her thumb in turn pressed against the bottom, but the tape itself, wrapping around the center she gripped, launched forward. The roll spun against the kunoichi’s digits as more tape came off, and her arm moved the roll around, as if she were controlling the tape with just that. The tape spun around in midair, one stretch of the continuous length overlapping with one another without explicitly touching. It was as if she was preparing a bind she was about to impose on him, doing so with all the one-handed grace of a rhythmic gymnast.

“Bad move.”

It was all he said, with a calm eerily contrasting his earlier passion. His eyelids lowered in focus and, without hesitation, he pulled the trigger.

With a flash and a piercing bang, the bullet emerged from the P220’s barrel with alarming speed, its parabellum casing flying from the ejection port as a trail of disintegrating smoke followed. The 9mm ripped through the mass of tape flying at him, stopping it in its tracks as it all bunched up against one another, shreds ripped from the body suspended in the air around the bullet’s path. The ripping and flying shreds continued as the bullet made its way through the stretch of tape closest to the shrinking roll, climaxing as it hit the roll itself. A hole was made in the tube, tiny scraps of microfoam blasting from the exit wound as it burst in half, escaping from Fuji’s gloved hand.

All Fuji could do was look at the escaping roll she had planned on using with a gasp, eyes wide open and irises shrinking in shock. A too-late realization made manifest.

Naokuu quietly scoffed after seeing his first shot make contact, drooping his shoulders for a brief moment before making a sudden shift to the right, keeping his gun pointed at Fuji. His right foot slid across the asphalt without leaving the surface, the soles of his Oxford shoe kicking up nigh-invisible dust two inches into the surrounding air.

Fuji’s eyes remained wide as she noticed Naokuu shift himself so he was aiming at her more than the tape he destroyed with his initial shot. It didn’t last long, though. With a blink, her eyes returned to their normal size, and she quickly dodged to the right, avoiding the second bullet. It sped past where she was before and hit the brick exterior of the apartment complex, forming little more than a chip in the wall.

Naokuu kept his ground at the right edge of the alley, facing the opposite wall at an angle, and shifted his aim to the left at Fuji, who was only slightly closer within his sights than before. The twintailed kunoichi leaped backwards, her sandal-clad feet skidding across the asphalt as she once again made contact with the ground. There, she faced a short length of wall perpendicular to those lining the alley, setting the apartment complex back further to widen the passage. She rushed for the wall, averting the third bullet, and turned around in the midst of her dash, crouching down behind it. Bullet number four fired just after she hid, the projectile missing the ninja and hitting the wall again. The bound and gagged girl remained seated against the wall, ignored by both parties but occasionally flinching whenever another shot was fired. Bullet number five missed its target as another casing flew out the side with a trail of smoke following behind, the recoil failing to faze Naokuu’s dour demeanor. Bullet number six soon followed, producing the same result. As the reverberations lingered in the air milliseconds after discharge, Fuji glanced back, trying to peek her head out from behind the wall. That was when bullet number seven rang out. She let out a soft yelp behind her mask, almost a squeak, as the bullet struck the corner of the wall, small chunks of brick debris flying in all directions as the slug ricocheted elsewhere.

All it took was a single, hollow click of the trigger for Naokuu to know he was out of ammo. As he took his finger off the trigger, the steel flush-fit magazine he recently emptied slid out of the pistol’s bottom, landing on the alley floor with a clank. He pulled his left hand away from the pistol, digging inside his back pocket for another round of ammo as he stepped forward, over the cartridge and to the corner.

“Hey, what’s the matter? You gonna keep hidin’ from me or _what_? I bet you’re only doin’ that as part of your ninja instincts… Or maybe you just weren’t expecting my gun to actually be _loaded_!”

Fuji kept behind the corner, breathing in and out in anxiety against her OTN mask as she glanced at the edge she peeked out of earlier. She couldn’t help but get more on edge as Naokuu neared, taunting her protective maneuver with each step he took. She lowered her head some, her breathing softening as she lowered her eyelids slightly, quietly plotting a counterattack.

“If you’re so used to playing softball, come out and surrender and I _may_ go easy on you!”

Fuji closed her eyes and growled out a sigh, reaching inside her tankini top. “ _Fine_. Have it _your_ way…”

Naokuu came to a stop just short of the corner, pushing another seven-bullet magazine into the bottom handle of his firearm. “There,” he grinned, returning his finger to the trigger. “Now wasn’t that simple?”

Fuji emerged from behind the wall, but she didn’t do so quietly. She ran a few steps forward into the alley’s main stretch, stopping in her tracks with her left hand by her side and her right balled into a fist and crossed over her stomach, her twintails swaying with even the smallest movement. She then raised her head and her right arm along with it, unclenching her fist to expose her palm, inching apart her still-curled index and middle fingers.

“Psych!”

Nestled between those digits was a black globe smaller than a ping pong ball but larger than a marble.

“Shit!” Naokuu exclaimed in frustration.

As he moved his left arm away from the gun and covered his face for defense, Fuji threw down the orb. Upon impact, it exploded into a puff of gray smoke, enveloping the everything within a ten foot radius of their point of confrontation, only expanding from there. Tiny pieces of the impact bomb’s destroyed outer shell were caught up in the outward blast of smoke as well, floating high into the air.

Naokuu let out a groan of reaction as the smoke burst forward, forcing him to close his eyes and lower his gun. He took several steps back as a result of the blast, his right shoulder hitting the wall to his right. He gasped for breath and coughed a few times, still caught in the smoke. He weakly opened his eyes as he leaned forward, turning his head from the front to the left as he tried to find Fuji in the widespread haze.

“Damn… Should’ve figured she’d play dirty like that…”

As he looked to his left, a shadowy figure leaped within his field of view, reaching down and picking something heavy off the ground. Twintails fluttering in the smokescreen, she jumped away as quickly as she appeared. It didn’t take Naokuu long at all to recognize the figure.

“Hey! Get back here!”

Raising his gun again, Naokuu swiftly turned around and chased after Fuji’s escaping shadow. The kunoichi looked behind as she dashed forward through the seemingly endless cloud of smoke. Her left arm was stretched out behind her, while the right held onto the ropes and tape tying her victim in place, the poor girl thrashing around and screaming behind her gag with eyes clenched shut. “Hmmmmmph! Mmm-mmmppff!”

“Tch…” With a simple click of the tongue against her teeth, Fuji turned back and sprinted forward faster, her gaze fixed in determination. As she reached the edge of the smoke cloud, she leaped up, pressing her feet against the wall to her left and launched forward. Her shadow disappeared seconds after the leap, but even so, Naokuu kept up his chase.

He too exited the smokescreen, his left leg emerging first with thin trails of residual smoke flowing freely around his pantleg. The trails broke into pieces and dissipated as his foot landed on the smokeless asphalt, the rest of his body following behind. Inhaling and exhaling with each step forward through the alley extension, not so much an alley as it was a narrow passage bordered by the windowless sides of two apartment buildings, Naokuu kept running. At first he ran with one arm in front of the other, but then brought his left back to join his right on the gun, gripping the firearm with both hands as he lowered his head in further tenacity. The further he ran, the closer he got to the proverbial light at the end of the ceilingless tunnel, glowing blue as the night.

He passed the passage’s end by with no obstacle, taking a few extra steps onto the sidewalk before slowing down at its edge with the street. He sighed as he looked forward, then to the left, then to the right. He grunted at the latter glance, pointing his gun in the direction between straight forward and due right, angled upwards.

What he saw in that direction was Fuji’s silhouette, imposed against the cobalt blue sky while in a midair leap. She carried the now-unconscious girl she kidnapped on her back, glancing back in Naokuu’s direction with her red orbs in the midst of her escape. A moment later, she turned back, and she disappeared with her catch over the roof of the apartment complex across the street from Naokuu, landing somewhere further away.

Naokuu grunted in defeated frustration as he lowered his gun, held in his hanging right hand as he looked up at the sky. “Great. She just _had_ to get away. _Perfect_.”

At his sarcastic utterance, Naokuu raised his head and looked up at the sky with a displeased squint, his frown widening in further annoyance. He remained standing in the same spot, feet on the cement curb between the blacktop street and the similarly paved sidewalk, his back to the two complexes bordering the sub-alley he departed, the upper floors flourishing with balconies for the apartments facing the street. Apart from him, no one was on the street. No yakuza, who fought elsewhere. No civilians, who were already following the quarantine order. Not even the kunoichi and her victim that recently escaped his grasp. Just him, standing there for several seconds, staring at the blank night sky.

But before long, he lowered his head, looking forward.

“I should head back.”

********

For the entire time Naokuu was gone from the car, Shin stayed put. He sat in the passenger’s seat of the detective’s outdated blue Civic, facing out the dead-end street it was parked in, himself looking down at his lap, his hands resting in them. He sat in silent wait, ignoring the faint sounds of gunfire and sword clashes as if they weren’t there to begin with. Considering how barren the neighborhood block they chose to stake out was, it was no surprise the lack of nearby yakuza activity made those even only slightly farther away seem nonexistent. All he focused on was Naokuu’s return, which he awaited patiently.

Soon enough, the driver’s side door clicked open and someone got in the seat. Shin looked up and faced the entrant. “So how’d it go out there?”

“Terribly,” Naokuu admitted as he shut the door. “I managed to find one of the three, but _they_ managed to escape with their victim before I could land a shot.” He reached inside his jacket and procured his pack of cigarettes, tapping the bottom with the tips of his free hand to push one out. “Not that I was expecting to arrest her, being a full-fledged ninja, but it still pisses me off.” He brought the pack to his mouth and gently wrapped his lips around the end of his cigarette, pulling the pack away and freeing the stick.

“But you asked her where their hideout was, right?”

Naokuu frowned. “You _gotta_ be joking. If I had interrogated her, I wouldn’t be bitching about her getting away, now would I?” He returned his cigarette pack to his jacket and brought out his lighter, flicking it on and lighting the end.

“I guess not. But finding the Kunoichi’s hideout is the whole reason we came down here, so naturally, I assumed…” He turned his head back to look out the car windshield in disappointment.

As Shin spoke, Naokuu returned the lighter to his pocket, placed his index and middle fingers around the midpoint of the cig, pinching it gently as he inhaled. He moved it back, exhaled the smoke into the car, and let out a grin.

“I never said I didn’t figure it out, Shin.”

“Huh?” Shin blinked, looking back at the detective.

“Granted, it’s more a clue than an actual conclusion, but it should help things along.”

“Really, now.” Shin’s eyelids drooped in a more deadpan flavor of disappointment. “So what’s this ‘clue’, anyways?”

Naokuu brought his cigarette back to his mouth and inhaled from it again, the end shrinking slowly as the glowing red light turned the paper and tobacco into ash. After exhaling another puff of smoke, he resumed.

“When our kunoichi friend made her escape, I managed to spot her as she retreated. What’s more, I also caught the direction in which she retreated.”

“The direction?”

“Hmm,” Naokuu grunted in confirmation. “She was heading southwest. Going off of that, I’d guess she and her ninja girlfriends have set up camp somewhere in either Shinjuku or Shibuya. Most likely Shibuya, since that’s where the Shimizu’s home turf is.”

“If _that’s_ what you figured out, then why call it a _clue_? It sounds like you know where they’re hiding already.”

“Not so. Remember, we’re looking for the hideout itself. All we have now are its general whereabouts. From that, I _should_ be able to work out its specific location.” He closed his eyes, pinching his cigarette in the same place. “And once _that’s_ figured out, _then_ we can get to nabbing the Kinky Kunoichi for real.” He moved his cigarette back and once again blew out some smoke.

“ _And_ rescuing Muchise.”

“Right, that too.”

“Wait, you said _you’d_ work out the hideout’s location, didn’t you?”

“I _did_.” Naokuu moved his cigarette over to his left hand, then snuffing out the flame at the end in one of the center console cupholders. “Sorry I have to leave you out of it, Shin, but it’s _crucial_ I do this next step alone. I’m a detective, and Shibuya’s my jurisdiction. If the Kunoichi are hiding there, it’s my responsibility to find _where_ in Shibuya they are.” He closed his eyes and lowered his head, cracking a small grin as he rested his wrist on the steering wheel. “Don’t worry, I promise you’ll be involved when we eventually raid the place.”

“Sounds fair,” Shin said, turning back to look out the front windshield as he leaned back in his seat. “Besides, it’s best for me to step back from this for a while.”

“Oh? What makes you say that?”

“My high school has their exit exams next week.”

“Exit exams? Didn’t you already take those?”

“You’re thinking college entrance exams. I didn’t take _those_.”

“Goin’ straight into the work force after high school, then.”

“That’s the plan. Everyone says they’re easy, but I’d like to do my best on them anyways. Muchise would _hate_ for me to be held back a year, just because I didn’t study hard enough to graduate.”

“Doin’ it for _her_. Why am I not surprised?”

“So that’s our plan. You look for their hideout, while I focus on exams. After that’s all settled, we’ll meet back up once I’m out and get straight to work.”

“Sounds good.”

As the two spoke, Naokuu’s old cigarette, almost half of it burned away, sat extinguished in the makeshift ashtray, a small trail of residual smoke smoldering from the ashen end. They remained seated in the front of the car, sharing a view out the alley they parked in, more invested in the conversation than they were in the late evening sights of their barren slice of urban Bunkyo.

“After your graduation… _That’s_ when we confront the Kunoichi.”

********

“Achoo!”

Tazuna sneezed inside her face mask as she leaned against the side of the shoji door, arms crossed. She let out a disgusted groan as she slowly opened her eyes, uncrossing one arm as she brought her hand up to the magenta cloth, preparing to pull it down.

“So that’s _everything_.”

“Yes, Mistress Nawa.”

“I see…”

In the main space of the apartment, not far from where Tazuna stood, Nawa sat cross-legged against the windowless back wall, using a throw pillow as a seat, while Fuji knelt before her, an expression of nervousness and shame plastered across the exposed half of her face.

“As successful as your mission was, I’m afraid the errors that were made are too large to be ignored.”

“I’m sorry, Mistress!” Fuji exclaimed as she bowed to the superior kunoichi. “Truly, I am!” She raised her body up again, her hands pressed against the floor. “I just didn’t think there’d be another witness! Let alone one prepared to actually _confront_ us…” Her eyes trembled as she spoke, and then they shut as she let out a frustrated, even more shameful groan. “I’m such an _idiot_! I should’ve just left with the girl as soon as I caught her!”

“Yes, you should have.” With a blink, Nawa went from looking down at Fuji to up at the other ninja in the room. “Tazuna, take Fuji to the back room. Give her a tight and thorough rope tie with an extra-thick jam gag. Show no mercy.”

Fuji gasped in disbelief, her eyes widening and irises shrinking. Her nervousness reached its peak in that simple reaction, immediately transforming into straight-up fear.

Tazuna finished re-adjusting her mask before turning around and walking over to the others. “Of course, Mistress Nawa,” she calmly responded with a nod.

“W-Wait, that’s going too far, isn’t it?” Fuji reached out to Nawa as she pleaded with her. “Sure, I screwed up, but I don’t deserve to be punished that ba-ahh!” Before she could finish, Tazuna picked her up one-handed and carried her over her shoulder. As she turned around and headed for the shoji door, Fuji looked back in distress. “Wha… Tazuna!?”

“Sorry, Fuji. Mistress’s orders.”

“Come on, this isn’t _fair_! What did I even do to deserve this!?”

After sliding open the door, Tazuna brought her left hand up to Fuji’s ass and slapped it hard, eliciting a scream from the twintailed kunoichi. “Just shut up and take your punishment like a good girl.”

“Oh, you’re so _mean_ , Tazuna!”

As Tazuna disappeared into the back room with Fuji in tow, Nawa remained seated. She glanced over at them for a moment, and with another blink, she looked down, putting her hand to her masked chin. “So the _police_ know about us now… There’s a chance that boy has something to do with this. I can’t risk any more meddling.” She lowered her hand, raised her head, and narrowed her gaze. “He needs a _reminder_ of our menace.”

********

The Shibuya Police Building cafeteria in the early lunch hours was quieter than usual, in spite of there being at least three people at every table. Every policeman seated either focused solely on eating their lunch dishes or drinking their late morning coffee, or spoke with others in a hushed tone, so as not to disturb their neighbors who were just trying to enjoy their meals. It was quiet enough that the loudest thing to Naokuu, sitting by his lonesome in the corner of one of the edge tables, was the snapping sound of the wooden chopsticks he pulled apart. On the table before him was his purchase: a medium-sized donburi in a black bowl, primarily consisting of cubes of seared tofu topped with white onion, shiitake mushroom, green onions, and white sesame seeds. Brandishing his chopsticks, Naokuu grabbed a piece of tofu with both garnishes stuck to it and popped it into his mouth. Right as it went in, he started chewing, keeping up his motions for some time.

Today, the day after his stakeout in Bunkyo, he wore one of his white dress shirts with a dark blue tie, and the khakis-Oxfords combo he took to wearing recently. As business as it technically was, it was fairly casual compared to many of the other officers in the cafeteria, either in suit and tie or in full uniform. After quietly and emotionlessly savoring the first couple chews of the tofu square, Naokuu opened his eyes and glanced to the right. He looked past the closer companions – a balding detective in his late 50’s slurping noodles from his bowl with closed eyes across from him, and two young officers seated across from one another chatting carefreely at the table next to him – and focused on the table diagonal from his. Seated there was Yokoshima, in his usual suit, with only a paper cup of coffee in hand. He could barely hear his conversation with the other older detectives at the table with him – one to his left, one two across – but he could tell that he was at calm, pleasantly returning the conversation with eyes both open and closed.

It felt strange to Naokuu, seeing him like that. Swallowing his thoroughly consumed bite, he dug his chopsticks back into the donburi and brought up another couple cubes of tofu, with a shiitake and several grains of rice following, and piled them into his mouth. He closed his eyes and chewed with greater intensity, yet also with that same low volume. He closed his eyes as he tried to deal with what he just saw, thinking back to earlier events as he became more invested in his consumption.

****

“What’s the meaning of this, Naokuu? You’re telling me they…”

“Correct.”

It was two days ago, in one of the upper hallways running along a row of walls looking out at Shibuya to the north. Portrayed in monochrome in Naokuu’s memory, it was bright out, in spite of the situation being anything but. Naokuu and Yokoshima stood a distance from one another, the latter with his arm stretched out and the former with his back to him, head down and hands in his pockets.

“Apparently, I misjudged,” Naokuu continued.

“How are you so _calm_ about this?” Yokoshima asked, lowering his arm and clenching his hands into fists. “All the hard work you did to find her has gone to _waste_ now!”

“I thought so too. Here I was, thinking this would set me back, but now, I’m closer than ever.” He raised his head, his red eyes being the only color in his black-and-white third-person recollection. “All that’s left is to rescue her and bring the perpetrators to justice.”

“But who _are_ they, then? If not those girls, then _who_!?”

“If I told you…” Naokuu lowered his head again. “You wouldn’t believe me.” With that, he started walking away.

“Huhhh!? What’s _that_ supposed to mean!? Naokuu! I don’t _care_ if what you say is ridiculous, believe me! Just tell me who kidnapped Muchise! Tell me _who_!”

****

Naokuu swallowed as that specific memory reached its end, closing his eyes and sighing. “The more I think about it, the more I’m regretting it.” He opened his eyes and glanced down to his left. “I should’ve just told him…” With a blink his gaze returned forward, down to his rice bowl. “Hm?”

In the midst of his reflection, the contents of the donburi had shifted from their original appearance. Much of the remaining tofu had been pushed to the upper edge of the bowl, with shiitake and spring onion scattered across the rice beyond it. Some additional shiitake and onions sat at the bowl’s bottom edge and along the sides, the sesame seeds more prevalent there than the scallions. The bottom half was such that the rice was fully exposed, save for a portion in the middle, where a sole cube of tofu sat.

“That’s weird… Looks kind of like Yoyogi from up here.” Naokuu let out a two-syllable snicker as he looked down at the donburi’s contents, smirking in amusement.

That amusement proved short-lived. The change in expression was gradual, yet just as obvious as if it were sudden instead. His mouth shrunk as his smile faded, lips remaining parted just enough to show the top row of his teeth. In contrast, his eyes widened, the folds forming the bags under his eyes thickening.

“It can’t be…”

He blinked a grand total of once as he stared at the contents of his donburi, the solitary tofu cube reflected in his pupils.

“That’s _it_!” he whispered in exclamation.

As his face relaxed into that more befitting expression, his right hand remained suspended in midair, holding the chopsticks in preparation to reach in and grab another foodstuff. He kept them in place for a few seconds more, when all of a sudden, he brought them down.

Just as he brought down his ballpoint pen moments later, onto the sheet of scrap paper he laid out on his desk, otherwise empty of paperwork for the time being. He began by moving the pen up on the paper, keeping a fully invested, mouth-closed expression as he followed the ink trail he made with his eyes. They twitched to the right, then down, then to the left, and then the left again. From the unattached ends of both left-moving strokes, the leftmost connected to the initial tick upward, he drew two diagonal lines moving down and to the left, longer than the strokes he made before. First came the line from the left horizontal, and then the one from the right. He connected the ends of both lines with another diagonal line, following it up with one parallel bisecting both initial diagonals, and a third that connected the two left-stroke horizontals.

After those shapes came the kanji characters. Above the one up top, consisting of his initial grouping of orthogonal lines, came the first. A horizontal line, then a diagonal down to the right below it, a diagonal down to the left crossing over, and a short vertical tick up top. 文. His eyes twitched from side to side, up and down, with the strokes of the second character, and before he knew it, he was finishing up the third with four ticks in the lower right corner. That character, below the bottom division of his strange polygon, was 渋. The second character, to the left of the middle portion bridging the two others, was 新.

In the upper corner of the bottom portion, he filled it with an upright-standing square with a smaller one in the lower half. For both, he drew three lines in one go starting from the bottom left up, and finished with the bottom edge, from left to right. As he moved on to jot something else down on the paper, another station employee dressed in business garb and holding a stack of papers walked past the front row of desks, paying a barely concerned passing glance to Naokuu’s in particular. Not that Naokuu cared. As soon as he passed, he finished jotting down his most recent sketch and, with a click to the end, dropped his ballpoint into the metal jar with its diagonal criss-cross pattern. Almost immediately, he pulled out another pen, this one red with a cap. Removing the top portion, he brought the pen down onto what he most recently drew: another square in the center of the upper portion, with five lines drawn inside: a horizontal bisecting the quadrilateral, with three verticals on top and one on the bottom. That, plus a large dot slightly to the left of the middle on the bottom edge. A near-perfect replica of the alley network in Hakusan.

The pen’s crimson tip pressed down against the dot and, in a mighty stroke with greater pressure than those that came before, it took a diagonal course, down and to the left. It slowed to a stop as it reached the square drawn in the bottom portion, right in the center of the smaller square inside. He finished the arrow with the two-line tip, and then circled the large square three times before tapping the nib in the center of the small square as a finishing touch.

“Just as I thought…” Naokuu said to himself as he looked over his one-minute masterwork. “ _That’s_ the place, I’m sure of it.”

Sitting in his rolling chair in the partition-free workspace, with only a few of the older desk jockeys seated behind him, hard at work, Naokuu glanced forward, his glare determined and his grin wide all the same. He let out a quick, under the breath chuckle, done with a more assertive intent than mere amusement.

“Lucky me. Just you wait, Kunoichi,” he said, lowering his gaze as his grin grew wider. “’Cause I’ve gotcha _now_.”

********

Shin sat at his desk during his mid-day lunch break, his head tilted and his right hand pressing against his cheek as he stared down at an open textbook. In contrast to the carefree way he flipped from one page to the next with the tips of his index and middle fingers, he kept his eyes glued to the text-filled pages, his eyes somewhat strained by the concentration. It was as though he were mentally memorizing each strip of vertical text by heart. With the lights in class 3-A switched off and the thin cloud cover outside giving only enough light to shaded classroom so others could see, this was a comfortable studying place for him, even with the white-noise commotion of other students in the halls and classroom’s edge.

“I see you’ve started studying,” Akari said in her monotone, standing at the corner of Shin’s desk.

Shin merely blinked and glanced up at her, his expression unchanging otherwise.

Shirei closed her eyes and snickered, her hands behind her back as she stood in front of her chair, facing Shin directly. “ _Took_ you long enough to finally get to it.”

Chikuru hummed softly in concern, placing her right hand on Shin’s left shoulder. “You know, Shin, you don’t have to study so _hard_ for something so _easy_ ~.” She then shrugged. “It’ll just burn you out faster.”

“Hey, as far as _I_ can tell, that only means he wants to do his _best_!” Utsugi stepped forward as she spoke, balling her hands into fists and brandishing them upwards in encouragement. She closed her eyes and smiled wide, tilting her head cutely. “Come on, Shin, you can do it!”

“All of you, stop.”

The girls looked away from Shin, Utsugi and Chikuru letting out soft grunts on top of that, and turned to face Yukisa, her eyes closed and arms crossed as she stood at the side of Shin’s desk.

“It’s pointless trying to speak to him.” She opened her eyes and looked down at him in disdain. “Especially since he wants _nothing_ to do with us.”

Utsugi blinked once as she listened to Yukisa, then turning around completely as she brought her hand to her mouth and grinned mischievously. “Hehe… Says the girl who _also_ can’t leave him alone~.”

Akari nodded. “Such hypocrisy…”

Shirei turned her head away from Yukisa and back to Shin, who had long since returned to wordlessly studying, leaning in a little to get his attention. “As I was saying, I doubt studying alone will do you much good, Shin. So how ‘bout you come and study with _us_ after school?”

“Didn’t you hear what I just _said_!?” Yukisa exclaimed. “Kizuka despises us enough as it is! Like hell he’d even _think_ to study with us!”

“Sure.”

“Wait, say _what_!?” Yukisa backed up in surprise at Shin’s sudden response, arms spread to the sides and eyes on the verge of bugging out.

The other girls, meanwhile, reacted with varying happiness. Shirei closed her eyes and grinned, Akari simply gave a gentle smile, Chikuru did the same but with a flattered blush, and Utsugi brightened up, gasping excitedly and moving closer to Shin with hands clasped together. “You _mean_ it, Shin!?”

“Yeah,” he said with a nod. “Covering all this material in a group would really help with my chances of passing. That and you five study together all the time, so maybe your habits will rub off on me.”

Utsugi clenched her eyes shut and squealed in excitement, her smile growing wider and brighter as she leaped out and glomped Shin, hugging him tight. “Oh, Shin~! I just _knew_ you’d come back around to us!”

Shin grunted harshly at the hug, closing an eye as he turned to Utsugi. “H-Hey, watch it! You ever heard of personal space?”

The other girls watched as Shin reacted to Utsugi’s embrace. Shirei lowered her head and giggled under her breath, Akari closed her eyes as she kept up her smile, Chikuru chuckled as she placed both hands on Shin’s left shoulder, and Yukisa recollected herself, closing her eyes and clearing her throat as she put her hand to her mouth.

“Just suck it up already, you idiot.”

As the commotion continued inside the classroom, the bell signaling the end of the lunch period began to ring. Over the intercom, both within establishment walls and outside, the familiar drone of Westminster Chimes sounded. It could be heard across the campus and from some of the multi-story buildings adjacent to the property. And while it was faint, it could be even heard from the four-story apartment complex on the southern edge of campus, facing the street where the rear exit emptied out onto. The building in question was one where the length streetwise was the same, but the depth got smaller with each story from the second upwards. The third floor was shallower than the second, and the fourth shallower than the third, the remainder of space atop the floor below reserved for outdoor patio space. The tops of the brick support walls separating the patio of one apartment from another moved upwards in a diagonal pattern, from the base edge of the third floor to the base edge of the fourth to the base of the roof. The roof itself was cordoned off with a chain-link fence, atop it sitting a taller-than-average stairwell cover with another stairwell running up alongside it, and a large white box that likely housed the complex’s HVAC equipment.

Someone kneeled in the shadow of the white box to their right, situated up close to the chain-link fence. Through one of the holes made by the fence pattern, they looked out at one of the windows glimpsing into class 3-A, its curtains open. Shirei, Akari and Yukisa had already returned to their seats, but Utsugi was still holding onto Shin, who went back to studying from his textbook in the moments before next period. Chikuru stood behind Utsugi, her hands on the girl’s sides as she attempted to pull her off of Shin, pouting as she struggled.

She couldn’t hear them, but the interaction beyond words was all she needed. Nawa moved her right hand away from her eye, her thumb and index pressing together at the tip to form a makeshift circle, and returned it to the rooftop below, joining her genuflecting knee as she stared forward, her hair blowing in the mild wind.

“Hmm, fascinating…”

********

“There we are,” Naokuu quietly said to himself as he set the last of his assigned manila folders of paperwork at the top of the outbox stack, approximately three times the height of the outbox basket itself. He moved his hands back and raised them above his head, grunting softly as he began to stretch his right arm.

While it was technically mid-afternoon, the unlit working space just as trapped in shade with bare lighting as Sadameicho Class 3-A, Naokuu still felt it was as good a time as any to quit for the day. All the paperwork was done, there didn’t appear to be any sign of more coming his way. Also, no protest at him doing so before. Without any further spoken words, he lowered his arms with another grunt and reached behind him, slipping his hands into the arms of his black jacket. He brought it forward as his arms slid further in, his hands before long exposing themselves once again and grabbing either zipper-lined side of the middle portion. With a shake, he adjusted the jacket perfectly, after which he rose from his chair.

But then, a hand was placed on his shoulder, just before he could stand straight. With a soft gasp, Naokuu turned his head to the person the hand belonged to. Standing there to his left was one of Gojiki’s lackeys. Six feet tall, slicked-back black hair done up in a ponytail, large build, and a black suit and visor-style sunglasses. It was the lackey that usually delivered paperwork to him. Only this time, he appeared to have none. Even so, this uncommon hands-on approach left Naokuu further speechless. While he processed what was going on, the lackey spoke.

“Your presence is requested in Chief Gojiki’s office. He wants you there immediately.”

Naokuu’s change of expression was subtle, his eyes opened slightly wider and his ajar mouth verging on hanging agape. But the initial shock soon faded, his lower lip moving up as a grunt escaped through his teeth, and his gaze narrowing in annoyance at both the order and his own response.

“Understood.”

********

“And that’s how _that_ problem’s done.”

“Wow… You make it look so _easy_.”

“When you really think about it, it _is_ easy.” Shirei closed her eyes and smiled. “Derivatives aren’t exactly rocket science, y’know.”

“If you say so,” Shin said in response as he started jotting down notes on a sheet of loose-leaf notebook paper.

Classes were done for the day at Sadameicho, and now, Shin was in the library with his quintet of admirers, seated at the same table they were “interrogated” at several days prior. Much like Class 3-A, the library lights were turned off and the curtains were drawn, letting in the light of mid-to-late afternoon. The clouds were breaking up, but not much sunlight made its way into the table area by the bookshelves regardless.

Still, the sextet studied without much regard for outside light. Shirei and Shin sat on the side of the table closer to the bookshelves, the two having a textbook open before them. Shirei showed Shin some of her notes while he copied them onto his loose-leaf, while Chikuru sat to Shin’s left on the same side, resting her left elbow on the tabletop and her head against her hand. Both girls closed their eyes and smiled at Shin’s progress, the latter giggling softly. Across from them were Akari, deeply absorbed in reading through her own textbook, and Utsugi, snoozing as she rested her head in yet another open textbook. Yukisa sat the table’s end, between Utsugi and Shirei. Staring at the sleeping girl for a few moments, she then closed her textbook and raised it up. She brought it down, hitting the top of Utsugi’s head with it. That was enough to wake the girl up with a surprised yelp of pain, her hands moving to the side of her head as she threw it back in agony, as exaggerated as it looked.

Those actions, too, were visible from outside the school, through the window where they sat, knowingly yet unknowingly. The rooftop of the school, particularly that of the wing opposite that the library was housed in, was just as bare as the rest, of delinquents or otherwise. Making it the perfect place for Nawa to next stake out. She crouched atop the tall chain-link fence surrounding the roof, her right hand gripping the metal while her left rested atop her thigh. The wind blew faster, her hair swaying to the left as she silently watched with continued interest.

********

“Well _this_ is a surprise. Didn’t expect you to actually invite me into your office, Chief.”

Gojiki’s office, as always, had the venetian curtains drawn shut, letting in only the barest amount of light to keep things readily visible. Naokuu sat in the black padded chair opposite Gojiki’s desk, leaning against the padded back with his forearms resting on the attached armrests. As he relaxed in place, he let out a brief smirk.

“Every time, it’s always me coming here to speak with _you_.”

“Yes, but things are different this time,” Gojiki replied from the other side of his desk. As always, he had his two lackeys standing behind him with their backs to the window, a cigar with smoke trailing off the end rested in his hand between his index and middle fingers, angled down towards his jade ashtray, and his desk was covered in a messy disarray of stray papers. “I _wanted_ you in here, Tanoshiba, and for good reason.” He returned his cigar to his mouth and drew the smoke into his mouth, the end brightening up for a brief moment.

“Oh yeah? And what, pray tell, would _that_ be?”

Gojiki blew out the smoke into the air and closed his eyes, his concurrent grin small but unpleasant. “Nothing much, just a little _rumor_ I recently heard.” As he enunciated “rumor” as derisively as possible, he placed his left arm on the table and shifted his head to the right a few ticks, opening his eyes and glaring forward. “About your recent visit to the Level 3 Archives.”

Naokuu gasped, pausing for a moment as he processed Gojiki’s reveal. It didn’t take long for him to do so. Seconds later, he closed his mouth as he scooted back in his seat, his hands moving from the armrests to his lap as he leaned forward. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Don’t play dumb, I know _all_ about what you’ve been up to. From the moment you last set foot in here, I had a feeling you’d go behind my back like this. And everything you’ve done since then – taking a day off, leaving the premises with your pal Yokoshima for lunch, punching out earlier than qualified – only made that gut feeling _worse_.” He returned the cigar to his mouth, taking another, shorter puff of smoke before once again pulling it back. As he exhaled the white cloud, he grinned, wider and much more malevolently. “I’d have brushed all that off as paranoia, if not for your buddies Azaguro and Natsutaka.”

“They’re _not_ my buddies. We just went to the academy together, that’s it.”

“Even so, they’re the only ones here outside of Yokoshima to frequently interact with you. And seeing how they’re under my direct command as Second Ranks in the Investigative Division, I put them to work spying on you, to see if my suspicions were legitimate.” He once again took a puff from his cigar, blowing out the smoke as he resumed. “Once they caught wind of your visit to the Archives, all it took was one meeting with Hosuga to confirm the obvious: that you were investigating the serial kidnappings, right under my nose.”

Naokuu stared forward at Gojiki, holding a surprisingly restrained composure in spite of his tense expression, frowning wider than usual as he held his rawer feelings back.

“Smart man,” he replied finally. “I didn’t think you’d see right through me that easily.”

“Pfft! Please, rookies like you are _always_ easy to see through.”

“But how, then? How’d you know that I visited the Level 3 Archives?”

“I _didn’t_.” Gojiki’s grin grew only wider, his tobacco-stained teeth on full display. “But I do _now_.”

“Tch!” Naokuu clicked his tongue against his teeth in frustration, gritting his whites together.

“Might as well face reality, Tanoshiba. There’s no fighting those with greater power than you.”

“Yeah, well what’s the point if I don’t _try_!?” Naokuu suddenly stood up from his chair, glaring at Gojiki with anger as he continued his rant. “You and everybody short of Yokoshima in this corrupt cesspool of a police station aren’t doing a damn _thing_ to stop these kidnappings from continuing! And why? Because you’re afraid the yakuza will turn their guns on you if you _do_? You bunch of _pussies_! Now what _I_ was doing this past week? That was _honest_! That was _just_! I’d have saved at least _one_ of those girls already, if not for your cloak-and-dagger _bullshit_!”

Gojiki watched as Naokuu exploded at him, his hands intertwined and his cigar clamped between his teeth, occasionally blinking as he let his aggressive words wash over him. All in all, he just closed his eyes and smirked, biting down on his stogie and chuckling in two syllables. “And look where _that_ got you. You haven’t saved _anybody_. All you’ve done is dig yourself _deeper_ into the hole you’ve made this past minute.”

As Gojiki returned his spitfire remarks back at him with a much calmer rebuttal, Naokuu gasped for breath, standing with legs spread and hands clenched into fists as he kept up his glare.

“You know what that _means_ , right?”

“No, _what_?” he fired back with sharp insincerity.

“As of this moment, you are indefinitely suspended from the Shibuya Police Force, both in your duties _and_ your pay.” After grinding his cigar into his ashtray, Gojiki raised his right hand, holding it out as if asking for something. “Now hand over your badge. I expect you out of the building by 5 P.M. today.”

Naokuu grumbled under his breath, reaching inside his jacket with his right hand. “You want my badge? Here, you can _have_ it!”

Just then, he suddenly removed his hand from his jacket and threw the black leather flip-pouch housing his badge at Gojiki, as if he were aiming for his face. Gojiki easily intercepted it, raising his hand and grabbing the pouch without missing a beat.

“But know _this_ ,” the young detective said as he headed for the door, pushing it open with a turn of the knob as he looked back at Gojiki’s desk, pointing his finger at him. “I don’t _need_ that badge _or_ your authority to do what’s right for the people of this city!”

Gojiki pressed the hand holding the badge against his desk, grunting in annoyance. “Spare me the Vigilante Detective quotes and get lost.”

Naokuu sourly frowned as he was already halfway out of Gojiki’s office, his right hand pressed against the doorframe and his right eye twitching in annoyance at his superior’s further prodding. And then, like last time, he growled…

“ _Gladly_.”

He stepped past the frame and slammed the door behind him as he stormed off.

********

About an hour passed after the meeting between Naokuu and Gojiki, if you could even properly call it that, and since then, not much else of note had happened since. The afternoon had entered its latest stages, the sky more prevalent than the clouds obscuring it, tinted orange and pink respectively. This prelude to the sunset hours continued on through the windowed door leading out to the Shibuya Police Station’s rear courtyard. Coming back into the building, into the back hallway leading to the stairwell door meters away, was Detective Yokoshima. He closed the door behind him, looking more concerned than usual. It was a subtle concern, though. Nothing for him to worry over too much.

At least, not until the windowed door in front of him creaked open. He gasped softly, stopping in his tracks and backing up a brief step as the concern swelled, his mouth slightly agape as he saw who came through the doorframe.

“Naokuu…”

His mood appeared to have improved from his upstairs meeting with Gojiki, but not by much. He was no longer angry or frustrated, though he was far from being in high spirits. He let the door swing shut behind him as he headed for the exit, not a single item from his desk in hand.

“Sir,” he simply nodded to Yokoshima as he walked past him, his sights set on the exit from which he came in.

Yokoshima simply stood in place as Naokuu passed him by, holding that same look of concern. A second after the bypass, he lowered his head, groaning under his breath in grief as his eyes started to tremble behind his glasses. And then, just as Naokuu was about to put his hand on the bar that would push the door out…

“I’m sorry, Naokuu…”

He stopped before he could so much as touch the handle, his hand limping down slightly as he listened.

“I knew the risks of this as well as you, and I tried my hardest to keep my mouth shut about it to anyone else, believe me. But _this_ …” He lowered his head, closing his eyes tight to fight back his tears. “If I hadn’t have told those two where you were going, things wouldn’t have turned out like this…” He whimpered gently as he lowered his head further. “I screwed up…”

“There’s no need to mope, Mr. Yokoshima.”

Yokoshima gasped, looking up in surprise.

“I’m not gonna let my predicament stop me _now_ , not when I’ve come _this_ far.” He turned his head to the right and glanced back at Yokoshima. “Trust me, sir, I _will_ get Muchise back to you, and stop the kidnappings while I’m at it, badge or no badge.”

Yokoshima looked back at Naokuu as well, blinking once. After hearing Naokuu out, he blinked again, smiling softly in understanding, with lingering sadness. “Heh. I should’ve known a suspension wouldn’t stop you.” He turned back and headed for the other door. “Just be careful out there, alright?”

Naokuu turned back, his smile more sad than confident. “Yeah… I’ll be sure to.”

Meanwhile, as Naokuu resumed his departure from the Shibuya Police Building for the foreseeable future, Gojiki remained up in his office, now tinted in accordance with the outside weather. He had emptied his ashtray of all residue from his cigar, but after returning it to its place, it still wasn’t completely empty. The photo of Naokuu from the ID pouch he turned in sat in the jade circle, and as if on cue, Gojiki tapped the end of his cigar, the ash falling onto his face, dirtying the laminate.

As he did that with his right, Gojiki raised his left hand, his index digit in particular, and curled it downward in a double motion. His lackeys, who remained standing in place, turned to him and leaned down to listen to what their boss had to say. It took a couple seconds of silence, but after that…

“Do it.”

“Sir!”

As his sycophants swiftly straightened their postures, their hands by their sides in salute, Gojiki grinned wide, returning his cigar’s other end to between his teeth.

********

“Whew!” Shirei exclaimed. “We sure got a lot done today, didn’t we?” She grunted as she stretched her arms out above her head.

“Yes, quite a bit,” Akari replied with a nod.

“Just a few more days and we’ll be ready, I’m sure of it,” Yukisa remarked almost matter-of-factly.

It was 5:45 at Sadameicho as Shin and his admirers exited out the school’s front gates, devoid of any other students, delinquents or otherwise. The six walked in two-man cells, one following behind the other at a distance. At the left edge of the school entrance, Akari walked in front with Shirei following. The former had both hands on her school bag while the other had her arm sticking through the strap loop. In the middle, Utsugi skipped out onto the street, carrying her bag by the handles, while Yukisa held hers on her shoulder as she watched Utsugi. Over to the right, Chikuru walked behind Shin, her bag over her shoulder and her hands behind her back while he carried his over his shoulder, looking back at her.

“Hmm, Shin, sweetie, you wouldn’t mind walking me home, would you?”

Shin closed his eyes and turned his head away. “I’ll walk you ‘til our routes diverge, how’s that?”

“Works for me~!” Chikuru giggled as she leaped out and hugged Shin from behind, latching onto him tight. Shin yelped in surprise, looking down at her as he tried to shake her off.

Utsugi giggled also as she watched the embrace, dashing off to the left as she waved to everyone with her arm raised up high. “See you all tomorrow!”

As Utsugi saw them off, the others started to go their own ways. Akari turned to go left of the entrance just as the pigtailed girl did, with Shirei veering towards doing the same, lowering her arms after stretching. Once out on the street himself, Shin started walking normally with a silent huff, dragging the practically parasitic Chikuru behind him. Yukisa was furthest from the entrance, and all she did was turn and pout at the show of affection to her left.

Again, unbeknownst to them, Nawa had her eyes on the high-schoolers as they departed. This time, she hid among the branches of one of the trees growing from the second-story courtyard balcony of the multi-story office building across the street from Sadameicho. Crouching on one of the larger branches, splotches of light formed by the breaks in the clusters of leaves shone on her, but she remained unseen for the most part. She gazed down at the sextet as they split their separate ways, holding onto one of the branches with her right hand as her left came up to her chin, covered just as much by her OTN mask as the rest of her face below her amber eyes. With that, she chuckled softly.

“Yes… They’ll do just nicely.”

********

The early evening sky remained a split between the hazy-looking blue and gray in the higher reaches of the atmosphere, and the orange closer to the horizon, where the sun was preparing to set over in the next hour. The squawking of birds resonated in the distance separating them from the parking lot outside the two-story rental apartments in Setagaya that Naokuu called home. His Civic sat in the lot, the only car there at that hour, and as a change of pace, it was parked on the other side of the aisle where he normally pulled in, the Honda’s trunk facing the street the complex sat back from, two spaces away from the fence segregating building from parking. In the driver’s seat, Naokuu sat in place, engine and headlights off, speaking to himself in an appropriately quieted tone.

“Okay, Naokuu, just remain calm. Sure, this setback’s kinda major, but it couldn’t have been timed _better_. There’s no need to go back to the station now. All that’s left is to finish what you started.” As he continued, he tapped his fingers against the wheel of his car in a rhythm – pinky to index, one by one from both sides – as he tucked his thumbs under the top of the wheel. “Meet with Shin, tell him where the Kunoichi are, go there, stop them, and rescue Muchise. That’s it. There’s nothing to worry about, from Gojiki or anyone else.”

Though his external monologue was in technical privacy, it wasn’t as if there was anybody around to hear him if it were readily audible. No pedestrians, no other cars passing by, save for one that pulled up on the side of the road and slowed to a stop.

“Yeah… You’ve got this.” He raised his head and looked up with a confident grin. As he did, he caught the rear-view mirror in his vision. “Huh?”

With a blink, he glanced up at the mirror, noticing something reflected in it. Parked on the side of the street past the lot was a two-tone Mazda 2 sedan, silver on top and black on bottom with a siren resting on top. The text running on the silver strip running between the bottom edge of the side windows and where the black portion started was reversed in the mirror, though even backwards, it was still identifiable to him. 渋谷区警察. Shibuya Ward Police.

“What’s a squad car doin’ all the way out _here_?”

Naokuu moved his right hand away from the wheel and opened the door, stepping out onto the parking lot blacktop. As he quietly pushed the door shut behind him, he turned and looked in the direction of the car. After observing it for a mere second, his eyes squinted in puzzlement.

“Wait a sec… Those aren’t beat cops. In fact, they look kinda like…”

Sitting in the front of the squad car, the only ones inside the vehicle, were Gojiki’s lackeys. The short-haired lackey, who had a mustache and goatee that didn’t jut out beyond the contours of his face, sat at the wheel with his right wrist resting at the 12 position, while the ponytailed, clean-shaven lackey leaned back in the passenger’s seat, his left arm resting on the windowsill in spite of the window being rolled up. He stared forward through his sunglasses for a few seconds before looking out the window, gently pulling down his eye-visor by the right arm and lowering them enough to expose his stern glare. One which he aimed directly at Naokuu.

That one stare was enough to unsettle Naokuu to the core. With a gasp quieter than the sudden pounding he felt behind his ribcage, his eyes widened and his muscles froze, leaving him standing in place for several more seconds of reaction. His arms hung by his side, spread from his torso by a few inches, and his feet were spread apart enough to give him proper balance. He stared at the squad car and the black-suited men inside in disbelief, which only grew by the second.

“I don’t believe it… Don’t tell me he…” He grunted in frustration, gritting his teeth. “He _did_ … That bastard actually put a tail on me…” He then growled, his brow furrowing as even the color of his irises started to pulsate. “He won’t let me do _anything_ now, _will_ he!?” He prepared another growl, about to move forward…

…but instead, he exhaled in the form of a grunt, stopping himself before he could even take the first step. “Dammit, Naokuu, just calm yourself, alright!” With his eyes closed, he reached inside his jacket pocket and took out his pack of cigarettes, tapping the bottom with his left hand to urge out one of the smokes inside. “Everything’s fine… Just keep calm and everything’ll be fine…” He clamped the exposed end between his teeth, nervously grinning as he swapped out his pack for his Bic lighter. “Yeah, just fine…”

With a flick, the burning end was lit. He stashed the de-ignited lighter away as he pinched the cigarette part-way between his thumb and index. He inhaled and like that, the end began to shrink. The paper burned away, the scorched edges as red-hot as the tobacco turning to ash. This time, however, the burning happened quicker than normal. The drag was just as long, but his inhalation was too quick, too deep. His eyes shot open, his cheeks puffed up, and then his teeth loosened their grip on the stick. The bent cigarette was left in his hand as he started coughing up the smoke he inhaled. Two quick chokes, then a longer, hoarser one that he attempted to cover with his fist in how sudden it came out.

“Ah, to _hell_ with it!”

That was it, both for the coughing and Naokuu’s patience. He raised his arm up in the air and threw the cigarette down hard onto the pavement. His right foot came forward and stomped on the unfinished cig, and with that his posture changed. He was hunched over, his hands were brandished into fists, and he was intently staring at the squad car sitting several meters away. He panted in anger, strong enough that he didn’t think he could hold back. He knew what he wanted to do to the lackeys inside, and it took all of his remaining willpower to keep himself in place.

Even so, the ponytailed lackey prepared for the worst. He put his left hand on the door handle and raised a black Glock pistol with his right index finger on the trigger. “He’s about to make a move.”

“Relax,” his companion remarked in a casual yet firm manner. “Like he’ll actually _do_ anything.”

“But if he _does_ …” The ponytailed lackey furrowed his brow, inching ever closer to rushing out and pointing his gun at the potential target.

Naokuu stared for a few seconds more, his ragged breathing persisting but his glare weakening. The anger was being overtaken by stress, the bags under his eyes intensifying in thickness and his eyebrows starting to upturn in distress and fear of what would happen if he took one step forward. Too much.

So he made his decision on what to do. He gritted his teeth and turned to the right. His left foot pivoted in the direction he turned as the right swung to the side, both stopping at a near-right angle. He unclenched his right fist, only to reform it with an even greater clench.

“GO TO HELL, GOJIKI!!!”

As he screamed at the top of his lungs, he brought his fist forward, throwing the punch as hard as he could.

The shattering of the tempered glass window was loud, so much so that the two lackeys heard it from their seats in the squad car. Neither moved a muscle, but the driver didn’t even look. Not like his ponytailed companion, whose eyes were wide open with incredulity.

Granular chunks of the side window were scattered across the cloth seat, as were larger pieces of the pane that, while brimming with cracks at the same small scale all over, remained in one piece. There was barely any of the window left on the door. In the now-empty space where it once was, Naokuu’s fist, free of any glass but still scraped badly on the fingers, hung in place in the aftermath of the punch. Naokuu himself caught his breath, slowly and raggedly, inhaling and exhaling, his anger once again morphing into a milder version of the stress he experienced seconds earlier.

“What the hell?” The ponytailed lackey lowered his gun, leaning back in his seat while still looking out the window at Naokuu. “Is he _crazy_ or something?”

The other lackey just smirked. “Hn. What did I tell ya? _Nothin’_ to worry about.”

Naokuu’s breathing continued on for the next moment, removing his fist from the window-sized hole where the punched-out glass used to be. He unclenched his hand and looked down at his palm, his pants for breath slowing to a stop.

And that’s when the pain kicked in. He closed his eyes and stifled a groan of pain, tilting his head back and re-clenching his fist. The scrapes on his fingers between the knuckles and first joints widened as his clench got tighter, small trickles of blood pouring from those on his middle and ring fingers. As he gritted his teeth, his elongated groan grew louder and more distressed. As he closed his eyes, they started to tear up, eventually shedding a single droplet down the right side of his face. Just when he couldn’t take any more of either the physical pain he felt before or the mental distress he had been facing for the past moment, he let it out.

“GODDAMMIT!!!!!”

His cry coursed throughout the whole of the parking lot, bathed in a harsh orange by the setting sun in the west. In the lot barren of any car but his own, of any people but himself, that one word hung in the air for as long as he let it out. The closest thing to a personification that could at present be mustered for his frustration, his anguish, and most of all, his defeat.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. Donburi is a general term for rice bowl dishes in Japan.


	3. Act 2

Cold water blasted from the sink faucet at a turn of the dial, squeaking from lack of proper care. The clear liquid poured down in a harsh array, the comparative silence of all else in his apartment making it sound louder than it actually was. Naokuu winced as the water expelled into the sink; not from the staticky sound of its descent, but from the feel against his hand and the scrapes on his knuckles. He grunted behind clenched teeth, closing his eyes to better deal with the pain of his wound, minor as it was, contracting under the steady flow. As his grunt faded to quiescence, he opened his eyes, exhaustedly squinting from more than just the external feel, and stared down at his hand, pressed against the bottom of the bathroom sink. The water fell onto his skin, impacting over the scrapes before pouring off over the sides of his hand and through the spaces between his fingers and thumb. Any blood that may have come from the wound before now was gone, but he kept his hand there, simply staring as the flow from above persisted. With every further second of staring, his limb started to tremble, which he knew in his heart had nothing to do with the frigid temperature…

********

“Are you sure about this, Mistress Nawa?”

“I am. Are you suggesting that my plan has flaws?”

“Not at all, Mistress! In fact, I think it sounds _great_!”

In the magenta-hued main space of their apartment hideout, the kunoichi reconvened. Nawa sat on the same makeshift throw pillow seat she used the previous night, her left leg raised at the knee and her right in the cross-legged position. Her left wrist rested atop her knee, holding onto the closed-up, pointed-down paper fan. By contrast, Tazuna’s standing position before the older kunoichi was rather plain, feet spread apart by ten to fifteen centimeters and her arms by her side at an angle. Of the three, Fuji’s position was the most interesting. Instead of having the same freedom of movement as her colleagues, she was heavily restricted, her arms bound behind her back and her legs and feet tied together with several lengths of rope that emphasized her tankini-clad bust. Duct tape overlapped the rope around the legs and the top and bottom of her bust as it provided additional binding, another length binding her hands together. The usual coverage around the lower half of her face was thicker than normal, with no less than three solid-colored stretch fabric bandanas fastened tight in back, keeping a large mouth-muffling gag that failed to mute out her cries of uncomfortability in place. Two cloth collars hid the regular leather collar around her neck, but the O-ring her leash was attached to was partially exposed as she laid on her side, struggling to sit upright. Tazuna held onto her slack leash with her right hand, while a pair of foam plugs she stuffed in Fuji’s ears moments earlier were nestled in her left palm.

“It’s just that this is our first time dealing with a predetermined target,” Tazuna continued. “Let alone _five_ of them.”

“Mm-hmmph! Mm-hmmph!” Fuji nodded in agreement, grunting behind her gag as she raised her head up the best she could in her position.

“But more importantly, how can we possibly find them without knowing where they are first? And with the police on our tail at that… A mission with this much pressure is _way_ out of our depth, Mistress Nawa.”

“Mmmmph!” Fuji nodded again, just once.

Nawa closed her eyes. “I understand your concerns, but do not be mistaken.” She then reopened them. “The authorities know no more than the boy does, if anything at all. As long as we remain in the shadows, we will have all the time we need to track and secure our prey. And once they serve their purpose, we shall move forward as planned, with no more pressure to hamper us. Is _that_ enough to alleviate your worries, Tazuna, Fuji?”

Tazuna blinked once, her eyes wider than normal as if Nawa’s reaffirmation enlightened her. With no more than a second to prepare her answer, she closed her eyes and brought her hands together, bowing to Nawa. “Of course, Mistress. My apologies.”

The shifting of Tazuna’s leash-holding hand gave enough of a tug to Fuji’s collar for her to succeed in sitting upright. Almost immediately after entering that desired position, her twintails swaying as she pulled herself off the ground, she nodded to Nawa as well. “Hmm mmmph.”

“Excellent.” With a flick of her wrist, Nawa’s fan opened up, revealing its sunbeam pattern. She brought it up to her masked face, the top edge positioning itself under her nose. “Now go get some rest, girls. Because the moment dawn breaks…” She narrowed her gaze into a scheming stare, one that glowed in the dim pink lamplight from afar. “Our mission begins.”

********

Dawn broke over the Tokyo skyline the next morning, the sky colored a hazy light blue with only faint cirrus clouds decorating the upper atmosphere near the horizon. As the sky brightened with every further second of twilight, the sun peeked over the eastern edge, decorating the silhouetted buildings with a silver lining as its shine tinted the sky a bright white.

It wasn’t long after sunrise that Shin arrived at the front gates of Sadameicho High School, early enough such that few delinquents were loitering around the campus outskirts; just the occasional wannabe-looking type with a half-finished cigarette in hand. After he made his way past the open gate, he was suddenly hugged from behind by Chikuru, the girl cheerfully squeezing him as she nuzzled the back of his head. Shin gasped in surprise and struggled to break free, grabbing one of Chikuru’s arms and trying to pull it away. As he did, the other four admirers came up to him. Utsugi led the way from his right with a jog, raising her hand and greeting him excitedly. Yukisa walked at a more normal pace behind her, her mouth curved into a displeased frown. From his left came Shirei and Akari, the former stopping to look at Shin with her hand on her hip and a smug grin on her face, and the latter simply watching with her blank expression. At their presence, but mostly at Utsugi’s greeting, Shin looked up, smiling nervously but with an intent of sincerity.

Hiding in the trees on the second-story patio of the office building across the street, Nawa, Tazuna and Fuji watched from among the branches as the sextet continued on their way towards the entrance. Utsugi pointed in the direction, speaking again, as Chikuru let go of Shin, only to grab his wrist and pull him along, and the other three moved in a more traditional fashion for schoolgirls their age.

Naokuu leaned forward slightly as he took a puff from his cigarette, the smoking end flaring up in a bright orange-red as the wrapping and tobacco within shrunk back a few millimeters. He sat alone in his apartment, his back to the rear wall. The sole window was open, curtains drawn and shining the light from the cloudy day inside, but he sat to the right of the light, avoiding getting in it completely. He just leaned against the wall, looking up and blowing smoke into the wide open air. His wrist rested on his bent knees, cigarette clamped between his thumb and index as always.

Later that afternoon, Shin and his admirers were in the library again, seated at the same table as yesterday, and in the same positions. Shin and Shirei talked with one another as they shared the same textbook, Chikuru looking at them with a warm smile as she rested her head against her hand. Akari and Utsugi focused on looking through their own textbooks, the latter struggling to stay awake as Yukisa watched her intently.

The three kunoichi watched the scene play out from the top of the fence surrounding the empty rooftop, the wind blowing in their hair. Nawa crouched as she did before, right hand gripping the top links and the left on her thigh. Fuji watched with less calm and greater investment, both hands gripping the metal as she also crouched in a squat. Tazuna just sat normally, right leg bent and left dangling over the chain-link wall, a half-lidded gaze on her face as she supported her head from the left side with her hand. It was as if watching so intently _bored_ her…

Gojiki’s shorter-haired lackey leaned against the outside wall of the residential building as he pulled his cigarette, a pastel yellow plastic filter on the end, out of his mouth, blowing out the smoke. He looked up, not at the late night sky, but in the direction of Naokuu’s apartment building. The second-floor balcony housing the entrances to each individual abode was illuminated up close by the thin ceiling lights, with the occasional lamppost along the street providing enough light to frame it in further context. No movement. None to be expected, so the lackey glanced down again as he walked straight to the driver’s side door of the squad car, returning to his previous station.

The end of the school week neared closer after that, as Shin and his admirers left Sadameicho early, the number of delinquents standing around outside the front gates much larger in regards to both wannabes and bigshots. One pair of the former even looked like they were picking fights with one another. The six straight-laced by comparison students didn’t mind, splitting up in the same manner they did the other day. Shirei and Akari left to the right, Utsugi and Yukisa down the center, and Shin and Chikuru from the left. Utsugi veered to the right, ahead of the others, as she waved to all of them, particularly Shin and the Chikuru, the latter clinging onto his arm as he tried to walk calmly.

As they watched from the trees as they had accustomed to, Tazuna and Fuji turned to Nawa. Without moving a muscle, Nawa nodded. Then the other kunoichi nodded. And then the wind shifted, the three disappearing.

Another morning. Naokuu’s alarm read 7:00, trying its damndest to wake him up. Seconds later, it turned over to 7:01. It kept buzzing, but in spite of its persistence, Naokuu did nothing. He shifted around under the covers of his futon, sure, but he didn’t reach out for the alarm. Not once.

Another afternoon. Nawa crouched behind a white piece of rooftop ventilation as she watched Yukisa and Utsugi walk together down a streetside walkway paved with brick in a diagonal criss-cross pattern, between a set of bollards and the yellow line close to the buildings. The twintailed blonde walked with both hands on her school bag, positioned in front of her, while her pigtailed schoolmate did the same, but behind her back and over her shoulders. Peeking out from behind the HVAC unit four stories above ground, Nawa observed their route while keeping both her distance and presence hidden.

Tazuna, meanwhile, had chosen somewhere besides Nishishinbashi to stalk in Minato. She went further south, in Shirokane’s residential area. She crouched down along the rooftops of the houses near a four-way intersection, one of the crossing streets too narrow for cars to get through. It was at that intersection, in the hour before sunset, that Shirei and Akari split up, the two waving to one another as they went on their separate ways home. As Akari moved along the steady upslope, Tazuna followed her along the peak of the house to her right, almost covered by the plethora of trees and other greenery growing from above the stone wall hiding the first floor’s presence.

It was dusk out in Central Shinjuku’s Wakamatsu-cho neighborhood, the purplish-blue evening sky providing just enough light from the leftover sunset for Chikuru to find her way home. She unlocked the door to her home and stepped inside, disappearing behind the door as it closed shut behind her. After a second’s lull, Fuji emerged from behind the third-story wall of one of the apartment buildings across the street, about two houses down. Watching, observing like her partners.

And then the moment of truth arrived. Exit exam day. The doors to class 3-A were closed, signs hanging on both. 考査中. “Testing In Progress.” Shin, Yukisa, Utsugi, Shirei, Akari and Chikuru were all in their classroom seats, looking down at the test papers on their desks as they filled them out with the utmost seriousness and little intention to be distracted. They didn’t even think to look out the open windows they tested beside.

Conversely, the kunoichi watched them test-take, from the same rooftop on the edge of campus Nawa used to spy on them from afar. Nawa and Fuji genuflected side-by-side, both forming circles with their thumbs and index fingers. Nawa made only one, holding it up to her right eye, while Fuji made two holding them to both eyes as she squinted. Tazuna stood in back, leaning against the white-colored HVAC box they situated themselves in the shadow in. Her arms were crossed, though she unfolded one to yawn behind her mask.

A set of knocks came to Naokuu’s front door, both from the same hand. Much like his alarm clock days ago, Naokuu just laid there, his back to the hallway leading to the genkan and the door at its edge. As the knocks kept coming, he hunched forward while remaining on his side, trying to ignore them.

Eventually, the knocker gave up, storming away from his door. A sight observed by the ponytailed lackey, standing outside the passenger’s side door with arms crossed as sunset inched ever closer outside the two-story complex.

Then came the other moment of truth. The reveal of who passed and failed the exit exams. A large board with the names of every senior was set up in front of Sadameicho’s entrance that morning, obscuring the front doors without obstructing access entirely, leaving enough room for students looking to actually go inside to get around. A crowd gathered around the signs, arranged in six rows – one for each class – with the names of every student in alphabetical order from top to bottom. In the list on the far left, for Class 3-A, two sets of three names each popped out.

川押卯津着

菊口四鈴

木塚心

Utsugi Kawaoshi

Shirei Kikuguchi

Shin Kizuka

月出行沙

継向千久留

照屋紅浬

Yukisa Tsukide

Chikuru Tsugumukai

Akari Teruya

To the right of each name was the same phrase. 合格. “Passed”. Much like some of the names above the sets, and unlike the others which had “失敗” or “Failed” markings.

The six were thrilled to see their names on the passing side, each in their own ways. Yukisa and Akari went for the simple approach with a mere smile, the former positing hers as more of a self-satisfied smirk. Utsugi and Chikuru cheered simultaneously, jumping in the air as they closed their eyes and brought their hands together, smiling wide. Shin and Shirei stood between both groups, both grinning – the latter showing her teeth – as they brought up their hands and fistbumped.

From the rooftop trees, the kunoichi watched their excitement. Nawa kept a cool face, while Fuji was on the verge of tears, closing her eyes and holding her right fist to her chest in pride. Tazuna gave Fuji a slightly annoyed look before dope-slapping the back of her head, which snapped her out of it. Though that only made Fuji tear up even more, looking at Tazuna as if she had done something mean to her, which only made the ponytailed ninja narrow her gaze in frustration even more.

It was well past dusk out, and yet Naokuu’s curtains remained drawn. He looked out the open window with a tired gaze, sitting cross-legged with his hands in his lap, dressed in nothing but a T-shirt and boxer shorts. After two seconds of gazing out, he collapsed onto his back, as if that sort of thing had become natural.

One last early evening split, this time from NO BEEF NO LIFE 2nd in Kabukicho. The night was fairly young, with pedestrians starting to pour into the streets of the nightlife district. By contrast, Shin and his admirers exited the yakiniku restaurant, finished with what was likely one last celebration of passing exams before their graduation from high school. Yukisa, Utsugi, Shirei and Akari departed to the right of the exit, while Shin and Chikuru went to the left. Utsugi and Chikuru looked back at each other and raised their hands as they said their goodbyes for the evening. When the latter turned back, she jogged up to Shin and reached out. The boy winced as he prepared for another glomp, but instead, she just grabbed his right hand. His grimace faded, replaced with a light blush as he looked to the left to keep himself calm. Chikuru didn’t mind his avoidance, simply smiling throughout.

As they had over the past week, Nawa, Tazuna and Fuji also watched the sextet split up on the street below. Atop the ROBUST RESTAURANT sign across the street, the first ス in particular, Nawa stood up from her half-kneeling position, her arms by her sides as she looked forward. Tazuna stood to her left, and Fuji to her right.

“Are you ready, girls?”

“Yes, Mistress Nawa,” they spoke in unison.

“Good. Now break.”

The wind shifted, and once more, they vanished.

********

The fourth in a series of buzzes from the upwards-facing smartphone on the wooden floor came, paired with the white pop-up box on-screen with a diagonally positioned phone receiver icon and two lines of text.

電話の着信

木塚心から

Incoming call

from Shin Kizuka

Once the buzz finished, the automated reply came on with a click.

“Hey. Naokuu here. I can’t talk right now, but if you’ve got somethin’ to say, leave it after the beep.”

Beep.

“Hey, Mister Tanoshiba? It’s Shin. It really has been a while since we last spoke, hasn’t it? I’m surprised you hadn’t called me with any news lately. Trying to find the kunoichi’s hideout must be eating up all your time, huh?”

The sound of Shin’s real-time message was the only sound that could be heard throughout the entire apartment. Everything was stagnant. A circular ashtray overflowing with old cigarette butts was in one corner of the room. Another was messier, with several discarded coffee cans, a fewer number of old tissues, and a black trash bag, filled and tied. All but two of the cans stood upright, with coffee actually leaking out of one, forming a large stain on the wood floor. The genkan was a mess of old mail, mostly envelopes with the occasional advertisement. At the top of the encompassing array was a letter from the Kaminarimon Power Company. Their name, 雷門電力会社, was the second-largest piece of text on the piece of postage, with first place going to a big block of red kanji stamped on the right side.

最終通告

FINAL NOTICE

Naokuu himself laid in the middle of the room, on his back with arms and legs spread-eagle. His hair was an inch longer, the lower half of his face was covered in peach fuzz facial hair, and his T-shirt and boxers were the same ones he wore days ago. His phone was by his side, plugged into the wall via the charging cable. He made no move for the phone, just listening to it as he stared at the ceiling in a dead-eyed gaze.

“Anyways, my graduation’s today. It’d mean a lot if you could come. After that, we can get back to work on saving Muchise. Okay? See you soon.”

With a click and a drone, the call was done. At the same time, the lamp in the far corner of the room, still switched on in spite of the morning sun shining from behind the closed curtains, flickered off. The power was cut. At these simultaneous actions, Naokuu let out a tired sigh.

“Ah, what’s the point?”

********

Shin pressed the button on the back of his own cell phone, the screen turning to black as it powered down. He stared down at it for a few seconds as he stood in the middle of the street outside his house, dressed in his full school uniform. Once finished staring, he reached behind and stashed the phone away in his right front pocket. He inhaled and then exhaled through his nostrils as he walked forward, facing the bright, cloud-saturated sky of early dawn. He proceeded along the downslope at his usual even pace, on his final trek to Sadameicho High.

********

定命長高等学校 **第最後回** 卒業式

扉は9:00に開きます 卒業高齢者 **のみ**

Sadameicho Senior High School **Final** Graduation Ceremony

Doors open at 9:00 AM Graduating Seniors **ONLY**

So said the banner hanging from the two-story gymnasium building on Sadameicho’s campus, draped over the concrete awning providing cover for the three side-by-side sets of glass double doors. The text was calligraphic, the boldfaced portions bearing a more aggressive air. No doubt because of the “graduating seniors only” portion of the banner text, things were less rowdy on the grounds of Sadameicho than normal. And what commotion there _was_ from the students standing outside the front of the gym, waiting for it to open, was fairly quiet, taking the form of subdued gossiping between both male and female students.

“You’re saying _all_ of them…?”

“Yeah, that’s what I heard.”

“You think it was the yakuza again?”

“Please, when _isn’t_ it the yakuza?”

Shin overheard these comments as he approached the crowd of his peers and classmates, stopping in his tracks at the second comment. He blinked once, the brief smile he had on his face as he arrived disappearing almost instantly.

"It’s kinda strange, that they all disappeared at once,” Sento said with a shrug, actually wearing his uniform’s blazer for once.

“Yeah, that _does_ seem fishy…” Ugo agreed with a nod.

“Hey there, guys.”

“Hm?” Ugo turned to his left, facing the source of the voice. “Oh, good morning, Kizuka.”

Sento turned to face Shin also, grunting through his frown in what felt like displeasure. “Sup.”

“So, what’re you guys talking about?”

“Wait… you don’t know?”

“No, I don’t.” Shin narrowed his gaze with the slightest suspicion.

“Strange, I thought you’d have known by now.”

“Well I _don’t_ , so what _is_ it?”

“Quit playin’ dumb, Kizuka!” Sento exclaimed, leaning forward with his hands in his blazer pockets. “You of all people should know what happened!”

Shin grumbled quietly as Sento accused him, closing his eyes and scrunching his nose in growing frustration. It didn’t take long before he turned to Sento in anger and shouted back at him.

“Then just tell me what freaking _happened_ already, you idiot!”

Sento backed up in surprise at Shin’s outburst, blinking in the lingering shock. Ugo simply stared, the tinge of surprise on his visage also. After absorbing his response, Sento calmed and responded bluntly.

“…Dude, you’ve been with ‘em all this week, you tell _me_.”

Shin then gasped in realization. “Wait, so that means… Don’t tell me…” His eyes trembled, the bags underneath darkening as stress started settling in. “The girls have gone missing too?”

“That’s the rumor, anyway.”

Shin turned around at the feminine voice, turning around to face the lime-haired second year walking up to him, Sento and Ugo with her right hand on her hip and her dust mask hanging around her neck.

“Renge…”

“Though the situation itself has very _recently_ changed.”

“Changed _how_?”

Renge chuckled softly behind her grin, removing her hand from her hip and pointing at the building side behind her with her thumb. “Yuuya and I found them in the gym just a minute ago. And I gotta say, whoever left them like that is one _kinky_ bastard.”

“‘Kinky’…” Shin repeated the word, his eyes widening in further revelation. He didn’t give himself any further time to react after that, as he dashed off right away, in the direction Renge pointed. Renge shifted her body and sidestepped Shin’s dash, looking back at him with her grin still on her face.

“Hey, Kizuka!” Ugo called out to him, taken somewhat aback by his sudden response.

“Don’t just run off like that!” Sento exclaimed with frustration.

“Well now, _someone’s_ impatient,” Renge amusedly commented.

Meanwhile, Yuuya stood by the side entrance to the gym, right of the main entrance. Unlike most of the seniors out front, he was still dressed in his regular delinquent garb. He stood to the left of the door, beside the hinges attaching it to the building, with his eyes closed and his arms crossed. As he stood, he heard the sound of rushed footsteps and gasps of breath, slowing and increasing respectively as they came closer. He opened his eyes and glanced at the arrival.

“Hello again, Kizuka.”

Shin stood facing Yuuya, hunched over with his hands on his knees as he gasped for breath from his sprint of less than 100 meters.

“They’re right through here, onstage.” He reached out and grabbed the door handle. “I’ll warn you, you might not like what you see in there.” He then pulled the door open one-handed, a sheet of newspaper wedged between the door and frame falling to the ground.

“Thanks!” Shin nodded to Yuuya and immediately went back to running, this time through the door.

Once he was past, Yuuya grinned, letting go of the door as he let it swing shut. “Not a problem.” After his words left, the door returned to its shut state with a harsh latching sound.

As expected of such a large space locked from the outside on almost all fronts and prepared for a such a huge event like a high school graduation, the laminate wood-floor gymnasium was barren, save for the multitude of rows of fold-out chairs facing the stage in the back, a wide aisle splitting each row in two. Shin rushed in from the side door on the opposite end from the stage, rushing forward to where the aisle between the chair rows started, in the very back row. His shoes skidded some as he made his turn down the aisle, losing speed for a moment before picking it back up again. He inhaled and exhaled from his open, sighing mouth with each dash he took for the stage, the fist-clenched arm in front alternating in kind. He almost tripped on his way, but regained his footing almost immediately, too concerned with what awaited him to even stop by accident.

He took two dashes past the front row of folding seats, and ran up the wooden stepladder in the middle of the stage, taking him from the not-in-use indoor basketball court that made up the gym to the raised platform, the red curtains fully drawn. He slowed to a stop, catching his breath as he looked down at what he had come to see. What he was hoping to see. What he _did_ see.

“I knew it.”

The sound of his voice and the sight of his form caught their attention. It was hard to tell if their reactions were that of the joy of seeing him or the desperation to get out of their current predicament. Wriggling around onstage, arms and legs bound together, with huge mouth-filling gags nearly silencing their cries, made it difficult to tell. Even when the restricted motions and muffled moans themselves befitted their personalities otherwise.

Rocking back and forth, energetic. Shifting in place, attempted speaking. Mostly unmoving, quiet. Wiggling in place, near-aroused. And struggling for life, screaming in protest.

The five girls were on the stage just as Yuuya said, laid out with near-even spacing between them, bound and gagged in the Kinky Kunoichi’s signature style.

“Mmmgh! Hmmmph!”

Yukisa was in the middle, the most unwilling in appearance of the five. Stripped down to her black lace bra and panties and school stockings, two long lengths of rope kept her limbs tied in place. The first length bound her arms in back, wrapping around her breasts in a bikini harness, while the second tied her legs together at the lower thighs, upper shins, and calves, the former two having two loops of the same rope tying the larger wraps between each leg. Her jam gag was packed beneath several cloth bandanas forming a larger over-the-nose gag, the outermost layer a bright pink. She arched her back as she struggled, staring up at Shin with a furious glare.

“Hmmmm! Hmmmm!”

To Yukisa’s left was Utsugi, dressed down and then redressed into her ‘かわおし’ gym T-shirt and red buruma. The rope tying her was red nylon as opposed to brown jute, and as opposed to a sole focus on tying arms and legs, the arm and chest bind had an artistic shibari tie over the breast and torso wrappings, the cords forming two diamond shapes down the middle from breasts to crotch. Her legs were largely unbound, but there was a wrap around her ankles, a taut length of rope connecting it to those around her wrists. As a result, her legs were forcibly bent, which added an additional predicament to her bound state, which in turn encouraged her energetic struggle, as subdued as it was compared to Yukisa’s. The gag around her mouth as a white one-layer over-the-mouth, with a notable bulge underneath from her own jam gag. Her eyes were wide, but they didn’t look too stressed or pained.

“Hmmn? Hmmhmmhmmmmhmmph!”

Shirei was placed on Utsugi’s other side, shifting around in her hemp rope bind, not at all dissimilar to Yukisa’s own tie. However, she also had a length of crotch rope placed over her white cotton panties, and another wrapping of rope bounding her bare feet and big toes together. Stuffed in her mouth was a large white ball gag with wide black straps conforming to the contours of her cheek. She looked away from Shin, not wanting to see him while she was in this state.

“Mmmmph! Hmmhmmnph~!”

Chikuru laid on her back, to Yukisa’s right, and of the five girls, she had the largest variety of bondage tools used on her of all five girls. Dressed down to her purple bra, which only covered the bottom halves of her breasts, matching pair of panties, and black thigh-high stockings, she was also subject to a rope tie, though much of the rope on both her chest and legs was covered by wrappings of duct tape, both in matte gray and tan. The former variety of tape also bound her hands together, which wriggled second most out of all her body parts; first place went to her breasts, jiggling with each wriggling motion she made. Her OTN gag was about as thin as Utsugi’s OTM gag, consisting of only two layers and a bright purple outer cloth that matched her undergarments. She looked up at Shin, her pupils practically forming hearts as her muffled moans continued.

“Hrmmmm…”

And to Shin’s far left was Akari, who barely made a move and just blushed brightly, from both the tightness of her binds and the embarrassment of being seen. But unlike Shirei, she looked right at Shin. Hers was also a rope tie with a shibari overlay, thicker than the others’ and with only one large diamond pattern made in the rope from breast to crotch. Additional lengths criss-crossed over each standard tie on her legs, her feet bare and tied at both the midpoint and big toes also. Her head wrapping wasn’t just limited to a thick OTN gag, though. She also had a headscarf covering the back of her head that overlapped with the outermost layer of her gag, both white. Finishing off her cephalic binds was a cloth collar that snugly fit around her neck, also white.

“So they got you too…” Shin quietly said as he looked down at them, his eyes darker in concern and trembling as they scanned over their bound and gagged forms. “Why would they do this? For what reason would they target all of you?”

After one last brief second of staring, he gasped, noticing something on all five that he missed before, in spite of its obviousness. Microfoam tape, wrapped around different parts of their torsos, with text scrawled on each grouping in purple marker. Forming a message that he read aloud.

The first piece was on Shirei’s microfoam, wrapping around and covering her bare breasts.

我らは一度あなたに戒ました。

“We warned you once.”

The second piece was on Utsugi’s, wrapped between the two diamonds of her shibari overlay.

我らは再びあなたに戒ません。

“We will not warn you again.”

The third was on Yukisa, wrapped thick around her belly.

これは我らに異議を唱える人々に起こることです。

“This is what happens to those who disobey us.”

The fourth was on Chikuru, also around her stomach, between two rope-tape ties.

あなたが我らの使命を再び障るなら、

“If you dare to interfere with our mission again…”

The last was on Akari, also wrapped around her breasts, covering the sensitive portions.

無意味であることをあなたに示します。

“…we will show you how pointless it truly is.”

Shin stared at the last portion of the message for a little longer. He blinked once, still looking. A few seconds, he blinked again. When he opened his eyes, his gaze was now focused down at the floor of the stage. Not the portion the still-struggling, still-moaning girls were on, but the portion he himself stood on.

“I see. So _that’s_ what you’re trying to say. All the effort we’ve gone to… is useless.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1\. The names on the pass/fail list for Sadameicho’s exit exams are in Japanese alphabetical order, mind you.  
> 2\. Putting a piece of newspaper between the door and frame is a good way to keep doors that normally lock during certain times unlocked but also closed.


End file.
